McCoys Unprofessional Behavior in "The Man Trap"

[TRON JA307020]

I was just re-watching "The Man Trap" and after Darnell is killed by "Nancy" his body is beamed aboard the Enterprise and taken to sickbay for examination. While McCoy is trying to figure out what killed Darnell and a concerned Kirk in the room McCoy start to talk about Nancy and how at first he thought she hadn't change. McCoy grins while he is reminiscing about Nancy. Kirk gets angry and tells McCoy to find out what killed Darnell and that he doesn't care about his past love life. Kirk rightly admonishes McCoy for acting unprofessional especially when the dead mans body is 2 feet from them. I don't think McCoy ever did that in another episode but I agree with Kirk it was the wrong time to be talking about a lost love when there is a dead body in the room. The only thing I can think of McCoys boorish behavior is that Darnell thought Nancy was a girl he left behind at Wrigleys Pleasure planet(Darnell saw a blond). That isn't much of a excuse thought McCoy should have been more serious instead of acting like a dick. Later when Kirk is apologizing for yelling at him McCoy does say that he was "mooning" over Nancy when he should have been doing his job. So he knew he was being a dick. Am I being to harsh on McCoy?Discuss.

 

[SchwEnt]

Well, Kirk called him out on it.
Later, McCoy admits as much and apologizes.

They both recognize the unprofessional behavior, as well as the OP here.

It's not like it was a scene that escaped anyone's attention.

 

[uniderth]

As the Klingons say, it's just an empty shell.

 

[Poltargyst]

I was just re-watching "The Man Trap" and after Darnell is killed by "Nancy" his body is beamed aboard the Enterprise and taken to sickbay for examination. While McCoy is trying to figure out what killed Darnell and a concerned Kirk in the room McCoy start to talk about Nancy and how at first he thought she hadn't change. McCoy grins while he is reminiscing about Nancy. Kirk gets angry and tells McCoy to find out what killed Darnell and that he doesn't care about his past love life. Kirk rightly admonishes McCoy for acting unprofessional especially when the dead mans body is 2 feet from them. I don't think McCoy ever did that in another episode but I agree with Kirk it was the wrong time to be talking about a lost love when there is a dead body in the room. The only thing I can think of McCoys boorish behavior is that Darnell thought Nancy was a girl he left behind at Wrigleys Pleasure planet(Darnell saw a blond). That isn't much of a excuse thought McCoy should have been more serious instead of acting like a dick. Later when Kirk is apologizing for yelling at him McCoy does say that he was "mooning" over Nancy when he should have been doing his job. So he knew he was being a dick. Am I being to harsh on McCoy?Discuss.

You are of course correct that McCoy's behavior was inappropriate, but that was part of the story. I do think you're being a bit harsh in calling McCoy a dick, though.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I was just re-watching "The Man Trap" and after Darnell is killed by "Nancy" his body is beamed aboard the Enterprise and taken to sickbay for examination. While McCoy is trying to figure out what killed Darnell and a concerned Kirk in the room McCoy start to talk about Nancy and how at first he thought she hadn't change. McCoy grins while he is reminiscing about Nancy. Kirk gets angry and tells McCoy to find out what killed Darnell and that he doesn't care about his past love life. Kirk rightly admonishes McCoy for acting unprofessional especially when the dead mans body is 2 feet from them. I don't think McCoy ever did that in another episode but I agree with Kirk it was the wrong time to be talking about a lost love when there is a dead body in the room. The only thing I can think of McCoys boorish behavior is that Darnell thought Nancy was a girl he left behind at Wrigleys Pleasure planet(Darnell saw a blond). That isn't much of a excuse thought McCoy should have been more serious instead of acting like a dick. Later when Kirk is apologizing for yelling at him McCoy does say that he was "mooning" over Nancy when he should have been doing his job. So he knew he was being a dick. Am I being to harsh on McCoy?Discuss.

You are of course correct that McCoy's behavior was inappropriate, but that was part of the story. I do think you're being a bit harsh in calling McCoy a dick, though.

Well McCoy admitted to "mooning" over his old love when he should have been doing his job. He never acknowledged that he shouldn't have been doing it with a dead man lying on a bio bed next to him.

 

[Nerys Myk]

You really love to dig in on this stuff don't you? They really don't have the time (real world) to have McCoy apologize for every real and imagined permutation of his behavior. Kirk and McCoy kissed and made up. McCoy said he was wrong. All based are covered. The story moves on.

 

[TRON JA307020]

You really love to dig in on this stuff don't you? They really don't have the time (real world) to have McCoy apologize for every real and imagined permutation of his behavior. Kirk and McCoy kissed and made up. McCoy said he was wrong. All based are covered. The story moves on.

Eh I enjoy nitpicking. I am a auditor and nitpicking things is what I do.

 

[Push The Button]

To be fair, all of the characters were still being developed at this early point in the series.

 

[Ithekro]

It was the first episode shown on TV.

 

[BigJake]

The creature in The Man Trap was established as having hypnotic powers that could affect judgment and behaviour. I'd always assumed that was behind McCoy's "mooning."

 

[Poltargyst]

Ever watch NCIS? Ever hear some of the things Ducky and others talk about while performing autopsies?

 

[Starborn Dragon]

I think McCoy's worse treatment of Spock was in TMP where he was proceeding to get in Spock's face and telling him what Kolinar was. I still don't understand why Kirk didn't put the smack down on him for doing that. After all, he wouldn't like it people got into his face telling him how to practice his medicine.

 

[BigJake]

^ I'm confused. Nobody mentioned McCoy's treatment of Spock?

I also don't remember him "proceeding to get in Spock's face" or "telling him what Kolinahr was" in TMP, unless you mean the brief exchange where McCoy jokes about him being "warm and sociable" and accidentally mispronounces the word "Kolinahr" while they're chatting about Spock's time on Vulcan. Which hardly rises to the loaded and weird description you're giving it.

 

[johnnybear]

I've always assumed too that the salt creature was able to bewitch McCoy or any other crewman with some kind of force! McCoy was so shocked that Nancy hadn't aged from the last time he'd seen her and yet at the end of the show where she appears to be in her fifties (like how Kirk sees her) he doesn't react at all!
JB

 

[Timo]

There's interesting unprofessionalism elsewhere in the episode, too - the poor corpse can only blame his own lack of professionalism for his early lateness! Is that hypnotism, or do all of Kirk's no-rank underlings always randomly drop their specific, under-orders assignments and go after good-looking girls?

The Salt Vampire is a charming alien in every sense, from seven sorts of figurative to at least two sorts of literal. When in the guise of McCoy, it can fake a genuine-sounding McCoy speech, despite not really knowing the first thing about McCoy (and indeed probably not knowing any English to start with - it would have no excuse for knowing Swahili, after all, yet it speaks/fakes that language as well). It's clear that it is not physically changing shape - it's messing with minds.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MarsWeeps]

There's interesting unprofessionalism elsewhere in the episode, too

Not to mention the entire series. How many times do we see the bridge crew laughing hysterically at the end of the show even though crewmates were killed shortly before?

 

[Marsden]

I thought the scene was written well, though.

Kirk scolded him, McCoy apologized, but Kirk reconciled afterward.

I thought it was a good character moment that these men were good friends but they were also working professionals and will not let their friendship get in the way.

I also think the Dr. may have been clouded by the creature's mental capablities, but that's beside the point.
It's also something that is medically very unusual and his "romantic haze" may have had nothing to do with him missing it the first time.

 

[BigJake]

There's interesting unprofessionalism elsewhere in the episode, too

Not to mention the entire series. How many times do we see the bridge crew laughing hysterically at the end of the show even though crewmates were killed shortly before?

Because of course in Sixties television, the audience had to be reassured that all was well at the end and damn character consistency.

We should have a vote for "Most Jarring End-of-Episode Laughter."

 

[scotpens]

It was the first episode shown on TV.

It was sixth in production order -- still very early in the show, when the characters and background were still sketchy and being fleshed out.

 

[Melakon]

There's interesting unprofessionalism elsewhere in the episode, too

Not to mention the entire series. How many times do we see the bridge crew laughing hysterically at the end of the show even though crewmates were killed shortly before?

Because of course in Sixties television, the audience had to be reassured that all was well at the end and damn character consistency.

We should have a vote for "Most Jarring End-of-Episode Laughter."

We don't always know how long events in an episode take place either. I was watching something the other day with a laughing tag scene after someone had been killed in the first act. But the way the episode wraps, it possibly was then several days after the death and burial detail. Life goes on. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and all that.